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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26509108">Late Last Night</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/treacherousdoctors/pseuds/treacherousdoctors'>treacherousdoctors</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Julie and The Phantoms (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Exes, Found Family, M/M, Platonic Soulmates, Trans Luke</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 02:49:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,248</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26509108</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/treacherousdoctors/pseuds/treacherousdoctors</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Listening to Sunset Curve's demo CD leads to a conversation between Luke and Julie about the past, and what it means to love your friends as if they were a part of you.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alex &amp; Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex/Luke Patterson (past), Julie Molina &amp; Luke Patterson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>409</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Late Last Night</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i started writing this at 1am, it's now 10am and this whole thing makes ZERO SENSE ! it's fuelled entirely by off-brand red bull and a deep respect for the found family trope. also luke and alex are exes, do not debate me on this</p><p>this one's for flynnagin for keeping me company all night while i wrote this shitstorm x</p><p>also, luke is trans. it isn't important to the plot but it's important to me :^)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>When Luke poofs into the studio, he’s instantly greeted with familiar sounds. He looks around, confused, though he knows logically that Alex and Reggie aren’t there playing old songs without him. It’s just Julie. She jumps at the sight of him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sorry.” She hits pause on the CD player. “I thought you guys were gone all day.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Is that our demo?”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Yeah.” She blushes, only slightly. “I never listened the whole way through. It was in with my mom’s stuff… I wanted to see what you guys were about.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luke nods slowly, thinking back to when they recorded that demo. Four tracks, some of their favourites. Some of the very few songs Bobby </span>
  <em>
    <span>didn’t </span>
  </em>
  <span>steal (a good thing, considering a couple of them are his most personal works, save for the song about his mom).</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That day in the studio is probably one of his fondest memories. He tends to look at a lot of his life through rose-tinted glasses (because, honestly, what could be rosier to a ghost than the thought of being alive?), but that day was genuinely good. Perfect, even. It had been the first time everything felt properly, </span>
  <em>
    <span>properly </span>
  </em>
  <span>real, the first time Luke was confident they were really onto something with their little band. They busked on the beach for </span>
  <em>
    <span>weeks </span>
  </em>
  <span>to scrape together enough money to rent out a studio space, but once they were in there they knew it was the right choice.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It should’ve been the second-last step to achieving eternal greatness. That demo, that night at the Orpheum, that should’ve been it for them. They were just hours from their big moment when they ate those stupid hot dogs.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Can I ask you something? About the demo?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Julie sounds hesitant to speak, her voice a little softer than usual. When Luke looks up at her, her eyes are wide and there’s something in them he can’t quite read. This happens a lot with her - with everyone, really - he never quite understands what people are feeling. He feels everything so strongly, but he never really knows how to explain quite what.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Shoot.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“You said you don’t do romance.” Luke stiffens. “But Late Last Night… who was that about?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Instead of answering, he poofs up to the loft. Julie scrambles around looking for him and runs for the steps when she spots him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What are you </span>
  <em>
    <span>do— </span>
  </em>
  <span>Luke!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She looks appalled to see him prying up a floorboard, but he just laughs. Her eyes widen when he pulls out a little tin box. He gestures for her to come and sit beside him as he clicks open the rusted latches and starts to pull out the contents.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How long has that </span>
  <em>
    <span>been </span>
  </em>
  <span>here?”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Since ‘93. I guess your mom never found it.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“What is it?”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>He shrugs. “Memory box. Dream box. It’s a little bit of everything, I guess.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>On top of the pile is a photo of him and his mom from years back. It’s a little faded and worn from being held so much in the days and weeks after he ran away from home. He’s a little younger than five in the photo and, despite being one of the rare photos of him looking very much like a little girl (taken at a wedding or church or something, but he can’t quite recall), he loves it. The way his mom is holding him, and the look in both their eyes. It’s a reminder that, despite everything, they genuinely and truly loved each other.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>To Julie’s credit, she doesn’t comment on it. She stays quiet as he stares forlornly, remembering all he’s lost. It takes a few minutes for him to garner the strength to put it back down.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Next in the box are a couple of concert wristbands, a few ticket stubs and crumpled up sheets of homework. There are still memories attached, but they’re easier to cast aside. He knows exactly what he’s looking for, knows they were cast to the bottom of the box.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He doesn’t look at the polaroids before handing them over to her. She rifles through them, trying to mask any kind of her reaction on her face.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You and Alex… You…?”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“We dated. For a little bit.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Oh.” She seems confused, though not in a bad way.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Yeah. Not for long. We figured that </span>
  <em>
    <span>boyfriends </span>
  </em>
  <span>just felt too much like </span>
  <em>
    <span>friends, </span>
  </em>
  <span>but with extra steps. It wasn’t worth it.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>She nods slowly. “And the song’s about him?”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Yeah.” He draws his knees up to his chest, not daring to look at the photos. “I didn’t want to record it because it felt weird, but… I d’know. Alex said it was too good to waste. We were in the studio like, a </span>
  <em>
    <span>week </span>
  </em>
  <span>after we broke it off. It was weird.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“I like the song. It’s a good song.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Luke laughs. “Yeah. It was just the timing of it.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Julie sits up a little straighter as Luke curls into himself. She looks through the photos again, but Luke doesn’t need to see them to know exactly what they look like. The images have been burnt into his memory for 25 years.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Him asleep on Alex’s chest. The two of them dancing together in the garage. Alex curled into Luke’s side on the couch.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He thinks, to an outsider, that those pictures would tell a love story - and they do, just not in the way it seems. He and Alex do love each other, more than most people will love anyone in their lives, but it isn’t romantic. They thought it was, but perhaps they were just a product of their time - they were the only guys they knew that were so close </span>
  <em>
    <span>without </span>
  </em>
  <span>it meaning they were more than friends, which is why they’d assumed they must have had feelings for each other. Things were better afterwards, when they realised they could love that strongly with no strings attached.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do you still like him?” There’s a twinge in Julie’s voice, as if she’s unsure whether it’s something she can ask. Luke laughs.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Not like that. The breakup was mutual, seriously. We’re better as friends.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Is it not… weird?”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Sometimes.” He shrugs. “Only if we make it weird. But it’s not like anything really </span>
  <em>
    <span>changed</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Just the label.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“So you wouldn’t take him back?”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Nah.” He smiles to himself and sits up straighter. “I like us better how we are.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He starts to put everything back in the box, but lingers on something he hadn’t noticed before. In all honesty, he’d forgotten it was something he even owned.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s a small photo, almost 35 years old by now, of them all at a birthday party. Whether it was his or Reggie’s, he can’t actually remember, because all three of them used to have their parties at Luke’s house (since his garden was the biggest, and his mom made great cake). They look so </span>
  <em>
    <span>young, </span>
  </em>
  <span>all oversized clothes and gap-toothed grins. He can tell by their haircuts what year it was. 1985, the year of The Pact. They’d watched a movie where the characters became blood brothers and wanted to copy it, but they were all too squeamish to commit, and so came up with an elaborate handshake and a promise. A promise that, no matter what happened to them, they would always be together - like brothers, maybe, but not exactly. Different than brothers. </span>
  <em>
    <span>More </span>
  </em>
  <span>than brothers.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He’s never been quite sure how to describe his bond with the other boys. To him, they feel like music. Like they’re bonded to his soul somehow.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was never like that with Bobby, who was mostly a member of Sunset Curve because they weren’t sure how far they’d get as a trio. Luke liked him, sure, but did he love him? Did he feel </span>
  <em>
    <span>in </span>
  </em>
  <span>love with him? Honestly, never. Not like he did with Alex and Reggie. Those two have been a part of him for as long as he can remember, as long as he even </span>
  <em>
    <span>wants </span>
  </em>
  <span>to remember. They met when they were toddlers, knew how to love each other before they even knew how to walk, and a big part of Luke knows he’d be incomplete without them. They were soulmates in the least romantic way.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Can you hit play? I haven’t listened to those songs in 25 years.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Julie just nods as she pads back down to the main floor of the garage. Lakeside Reflection fills the space, and Luke finds himself smiling.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He buries the polaroids back at the bottom of the box and goes to put it back under the floorboards. Before he can, he hesitates and reopens it. He takes the two photos - his mom and the birthday party - and carefully folds them into his pocket, running his thumb across the edge of the paper. They feel right there, as if they belong on his person rather than shrouded in dust up here in a loft where nobody will ever see them. He takes the stairs back down to Julie, and they settle beside each other on the couch.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Julie is drumming her nails on the arm of the couch in time with the song, and Luke finds himself mouthing the words. It’s strange to think it’s 25 years since anybody listened to these songs - to him, it feels like barely a couple of months.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Late Last Night starts playing, and Alex was right. It </span>
  <em>
    <span>was </span>
  </em>
  <span>too good to waste. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s probably one of his best works, and relief washes over him to know that Bobby didn’t take this one. Maybe they can play with it sometime, bring Julie into it and make it new. They could likely never play it live (for risk of it being recognised by someone that knew of Sunset Curve way back when, who might then realise how suspiciously similar these three “holograms” look to the long-dead rockstars), but it might be nice regardless. It’s still good, really good, and it would be a shame if it was lost to time the way the boys themselves had been before Julie gave them their second chance.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What he notices about the lyrics is that they still work. He still feels every bit of emotion he put into them the first time around - sure, the occasional references to kissing a lover don’t make much sense anymore, but the feelings are the same. He’s pretty sure he loves Alex just the same as he did back then, just from a different angle. It feels like being a little kid, getting a cool new shirt that your mom buys big so it’ll last longer. It’s great, and you adore it, but in a few months' time when it finally fits like a glove rather than a potato sack you adore it just that little bit more. Nothing practical has changed, but it slots into place in a way you’d been waiting for. His bond with Alex feels like that, something they were just waiting to grow into. They’ve found their place now, and it’s wonderful.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>If they were anybody else, this could hurt. It has all the makings of a sad story - exes that are bound to one another for eternity, spark gone and no chance of ever getting back to the way things were. It </span>
  <em>
    <span>should </span>
  </em>
  <span>suck. As it is, though, Luke is pretty sure this is exactly where they’re meant to be. For him and Alex, </span>
  <em>
    <span>‘we’re better off as friends’ </span>
  </em>
  <span>wasn't just some hollow statement to try and soften the blow. They really </span>
  <em>
    <span>are </span>
  </em>
  <span>better off, their brief time spent dating now nothing more than something to joke about.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Suddenly, as if on cue, Alex poofs in just as the song is swelling to its most dramatic point. He seems startled by it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Is this—”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Yup.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“About—”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Yeah.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“And does she—”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Yep!” Julie grins, slightly devilishly. “Personally, I think it’s adorable.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“This is quite literally the worst thing that has ever happened to me.” He groans dramatically as Julie makes mocking kissy-faces in his direction.</span>
  <span></span><br/>
<span>“We </span>
  <em>
    <span>died</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Luke deadpans, before breaking into a laugh and pouting. “Am I not your favourite anymore, Allie?”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“I feel </span>
  <em>
    <span>targeted</span>
  </em>
  <span>—”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Before Alex can finish speaking, Luke poofs closer to him, until they’re so close together that he can feel the rise and fall of Alex’s chest. They make a tense sort of eye contact, enough contained within their gaze to express a million different things (the main one being </span>
  <em>
    <span>‘I’m kidding, and I’m glad we’re just friends’</span>
  </em>
  <span>). Affectionately, Alex shoves Luke back a few paces before grabbing the sleeve of his jacket to pull him into a hug. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luke melts into it. Hugs are a little hard to come by these days, what with the whole “non-corporeal” thing, so he relishes each one he gets like bodily contact is what keeps the world spinning on its axis.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He knows they made the right choice. He loves Alex with every fibre of his being - their bond is his lifeblood, and hugs like this are what remind him to keep moving forward - but it definitely isn’t romantic. They tried it once, and that was enough to know they don’t need it. Things are better this way, a fact tacitly understood by everyone around them as much as by themselves. Any time where they may have felt differently is a lifetime away (quite literally).</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>More people should try this, Luke decides. More people ought to find their soulmate in the most unromantic way. It’s kind of the best feeling in the world.</span>
</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>no proofreading we die like men (and return 25 years later to be gay in a new century)</p><p>my twitter is @closetedcory if u ever want to subject urself to luke sad hours (usually between 3 and 7am)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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